Richard Hoagland appeared in Hamilton County, Indiana court on May 14 for a child support hearing

A 65-year-old man was ordered to pay nearly $2million in back child support to his wife earlier this month, for abandoning her and their two sons to flee to Florida where he assumed a new identity and started a new family.

Hoagland abandoned his wife Linda Iseler and their two sons Douglas and Matthew in 1993, when the children were six- and nine-years-old respectively.

He eventually settled in Florida where he stole the identity of Terry Jude Symansky, a commercial fisherman who drowned in 1991.

Under Symansky's name, he remarried and had another son.

While his Indiana wife and kids struggled to make ends meet - and were even kicked out of their home due to foreclosure - Symansky appeared to live a comfortable life. He worked as a landlord, got his pilot's license and bought his own plane.

His world came crashing down in 2016 however, when Symansky's nephew discovered that a man had married under his uncle's name four years after his death.

The 65-year-old was ordered to pay nearly $2million in back child support for abandoning his wife and two kids in 1993 (the family pictured above before his departure above)

The nephew alerted police who tracked Hoagland down in Zephyrills, Florida, where he readily admitted to the con. He told investigators that he left because he wanted to end his marriage but didn't want to go through divorce process again, having been divorced once before.

Hoagland spent two years in prison for identity theft, and when he was released in April, he moved back to Indiana. A month later, he had an awkward reunion with the wife and two kids he abandoned.

When Hoagland resurfaced, his wife took him to court, demanding back child support for the more than two decades he was missing.

The family convened on Hamilton County Court on May 14 for the heading, where the judge sided with Iseler, ordering Hoagland to pay $1.86million - a fine that was calculated using the maximum allowable interest of 18 per cent.

'I was glad that we finally had made it to that point where he would be held accountable for his behavior,' Hoagland's ex-wife Linda Iseler (pictured above with her new husband) said

The couple's sons Matthew (left) and Doug (right) are now adults. They were nine and six-years-old respectively when their father abandoned them. Today they are 35 and 31

'It was clear that Richard was not living in poverty,' Magistrate William P. Greenaway wrote in his ruling. '(He) had obtained a comfortable lifestyle, had remarried and had children, obtained a pilot’s license and owned at least one airplane that was acquired for personal use.'

Whether or not the family will see that money remains in question since Hoagland is currently in divorce proceedings with his Florida ex-wife, who will no doubt try to get a hefty portion of his money as well.

Nevertheless, the decision was heralded as a victory for Iseler and her sons.

Hoagland eventually settled in Florida, assuming the identity of commercial fisherman Terry Symansky, who had drowned in 1991 (above)

'I was glad that we finally had made it to that point where he would be held accountable for his behavior,' the 61-year-old told IndyStar. 'There's some closure with that.'

She and her sons spoke to the newspaper to detail their hardships after Hoagland left them.

Iseler remembers the day he left vividly. She was at work when she received a call from her husband around 4:45pm, saying he was leaving and would be gone by the time she got home.

She rushed to the day care, picked up Douglas, and ran home, where third-grader Matthew was already home from school.

Once Iseler was home, Hoagland called again to say goodbye.

'I can't live this way anymore,' he told her. 'I feel you would be better off without me.'

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Once Hoagland left, Iseler had a hard time making ends meet. She sold valuables and her husband's designer suits to pay the bills, but it still wasn't enough.

The bank foreclosed on their home and boat and lenders repossessed the family's van. Her sons grew up wearing hand-me-down sneakers and only got new winter coats due to a charity program.

He lived at this home in Zephyrhills, Florida for more than two decades before he was finally caught when one of Symansky's nephews was researching the family tree and realized someone had married under his uncle's name four years after his death

Matthew, now 35, was especially upset when his dad wore an outfit that looked like it had been bought at a thrift store to court earlier this month, believing he was trying to put on a show that he was poor when they knew the reality of poverty all to well.

Douglas, now 31, has similarly negative feelings of his father, who he says he has no interest in reconnecting with.

When his father was arrested, Douglas was in prison on drug charges. While he doesn't blame his father for his drug issues, his mother says the trauma of being abandoned left her sons emotionally damaged.

In court Douglas said he studied his father's face for any hint of emotional turmoil.

'If you think you had two kids and you wanted to see them so bad, you think you'd be little bit emotional,' Douglas said. 'But this guy, nothing. There was nothing there.'